Tag Archives: Istanbul

In an initiative to promote Turkey as a preferred wedding destination for Indian weddings, Turkey Cultural & Tourism board, India, recently organised a familiarisation trip for top Indian wedding planning agencies. Agencies were selected on the quality of their work as well as their experience in planning weddings abroad. The visit offered the Indian contingent with the opportunity to view and experience Turkey as a unique destination for holding Indian weddings. The week-long trip had wedding planners travelling to cities of Antalya, Bodrum, Istanbul where they had the opportunity to visit more than 25 hotels and resorts and interact with the representatives of these luxury hospitality chains. In addition, a city tour was also organised in each city where the Indian delegation had the chance to visit some of regions most popular tourist attractions. Special cultural events, culinary galas and B2B sessions also kept the delegation busy. The trip helped wedding planners understand the current offerings in Turkey and how it could be explored as a destination for lavish Indian weddings. Talking about reasons to promote Turkey as a wedding destination, Deniz Ersöz, Culture and Tourism Counsellor, Turkish Culture and Tourism Office in India, said, “Weddings in India are becoming larger than life and destination weddings are getting more and more popular among Indians. Turkey has great potential to become a wedding destination and the feedback we got from the wedding planners after the Fam trip was very encouraging. It is a destination with the most amazing and diverse topography, which is perfect for an Indian wedding as you could have every event set against a unique backdrop.”

The Turkish Tourism Board in India recently announced that the number of Indian tourists travelling to Turkey has doubled with 95 per cent increase from January to July. Commenting on the growth, Deniz Ersöz, Culture & Tourism Counsellor, Embassy of the Republic of Turkey said, “In 2017, Turkey hosted more than 32 million international tourists while from India the number was 87,000. This year, from January to July, we recorded 25 per cent increase in the number of overall tourists. That means we will be hosting 40 million international tourists by the end of 2018. When we look at figures from India, we see 95 per cent increase for the same period. If this trend continues we will be hosting almost 2 lakh Indian tourists by the end of this year.” Ersöz further added, “Istanbul, Antalya, Cappadocia, Troy and Izmir are extremely popular with Indian travellers. However, Bodrum and Marmaris have also emerged as major tourist attractions in recent past. In addition to that, Konya where Celaleddin Rumi spent his last 45 years, the sacred site where he was buried is also among the popular destinations for Indians.”

Addressing the UFTAA 2017 Mid-Year Forum in City of Salerno, Italy, Sunil Kumar R, President, UFTAA, revealed that the organisation is going to come up with a global tourism office in Istanbul by later next month. “UFTAA Global Tourism Office at Istanbul is a new initiative of UFTAA. At the previous world congress of UFTAA held in Istanbul, we did confirm that UFTAA apart from travel matters will embark on tourism, MICE and education in a big way and try to create more opportunities in this area. In terms of tourism, a big initiative has been declared by the UFTAA Board of Directors for establishing the UFTAA global tourism office in Istanbul, which will be manned professionally connecting travel professionals all over the world, encouraging B2B activities, encouraging business exchange between UFTAA associations and UFTAA affiliates. We are confident that this UFTAA tourism office will also come up with certain systems where we could gift our members certain credibility and status so that when someone sells tourism online, there is a certification from UFTAA which supports such agencies. However, this is a long-term goal. We first need to get members on board, keep the membership active and hope that UFTAA gets new members from different countries around the world,” adds Kumar. He further informed that UFTAA is in talks with the new Secretary General of UNWTO to inaugurate the new office sometime later next month. He says that due to the Qatar crisis, the work on the UFTAA Global headquarters has been kept on the back burner and hopefully there will be a headway on the same very soon.

In a show of solidarity to the tourism community, the United Federation of Travel Agents Associations (UFTAA) board has decided to stick to its original decision to have its Golden Jubilee Congress in Istanbul after reviewing the current situation. Sunil Kumar, President, UFTAA, said, “November 25 and 26, 2016, will witness the Golden Jubilee Congress of UFTAA in Istanbul. One of our most prime member associations, TURSAB, will be co-ordinating this event which is being supported by the Ministry of Tourism & Culture, Turkey. The Golden Jubilee Congress is anticipated to give UFTAA a huge push to its next level and since it is held in the most beautiful locales and hotels Turkey has to offer, it is anticipated that this will be a successful event.”

Sunil Kumar, President, United Federation of Travel Agents Associations (UFTAA), has revealed that the association board is reviewing the venue it had selected for its 50th anniversary celebrations this November. It had selected Istanbul as the destination. However, recent developments have forced the board to review it. While on his way to the airport for his flight to Istanbul last night to attend a meeting with the UFTAA board members, Kumar revealed, “We will review the venue for our Golden Jubilee Congress that is expected to be held anytime after November 22, 2016. The exact dates will also be confirmed at this meeting.” UFTAA will also be getting ready for the Passenger Agency Conference (PAConf) that will take place in September in Singapore, he added.